Pictured are Leonard Hiebert, Jake Reimer, Bill Braun and Abe and Helen Dyck, applying labels to each can before they are boxed for shipment. Photo by Elmer Heinrichs |
The Mennonite Central Committee meat canning crew spent Nov. 24–27 in Winkler, Man. for a 60-hour non-stop pork canning project. The core team travelling with the mobile canner was aided by local coordinators Ken Reddig, Paul Friesen and Wilf Unrau and almost 400 volunteers working in 6-hour shifts. They processed almost 200 sows, deboning, cutting and cooking the meat and putting it into over 22,000 cans. The pigs were donated or sponsored by Manitoba farmers, agri-businesses and other individuals. The pork will go to North Korea where it is designated for use in hospitals and orphanages and especially for pregnant mothers and mothers with newborns. Winkler was the first of three stops in Canada.
Colombian Mennonite pastor Javier Segura, 31, died instantly in a bomb attack of a public building in Bogota Nov. 28. Javier had just said goodbye to his fiancée at her home and was awaiting public transportation. He lived with his elderly parents. Gifted to work with youth, he was much loved by his congregation. The Colombian Mennonite Church has actively promoted a nonviolent witness through the evangelical Protestant churches of Colombia for 20 years.
—Compass Direct
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) is calling for a “full and fair public debate” on the issue of marriage in the wake of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the Marriage Reference. The Court said Parliament may redefine marriage, EFC president Bruce Clemenger notes, “it has not said that it must redefine marriage to include same-sex couples.” The EFC welcomes the issue’s move back to Parliament, and the strong affirmation of religious freedom in the Court’s ruling.
—EFC release
Two of the six imprisoned Vietnamese Mennonite Church personnel have been released from prison in Ho Chi Minh City after completing 9-month sentences. The two are brothers, 24 and 22, who serve as deacon and evangelist in the Mennonite Church of Ho Chi Minh City’s 2nd district. Authorities appear unyielding in their determination to close the church, which meets in the home of pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, still imprisoned. Police recently broke up a worship service there.
—Mennonite Weekly Review
Two leading conservative Protestants, author–evangelist Ravi Zacharias and Fuller Theological Seminary president Richard Mouw, preached at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City Nov. 14, the first non-Mormons to do so in 105 years. Nearly 5,000 evangelicals and Mormons sat together during the event, sponsored by Standing Together, a network of evangelical churches seeking improved relations with Mormons.
—Evangelical Press News
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) leaders expressed condolences to CARE and the family of Margaret Hassan, the CARE leader kidnapped Oct. 19 and killed in Baghdad. Those who had contact with her through the years admired her commitment and leadership. Hassan headed the Iraq office of CARE for more than a decade. MCC worked with CARE before, during and after the invasion of Iraq to distribute material resources.
—MCC News
A performing arts centre, named Buhler Hall, was dedicated Nov. 28, in Gretna, Man., on the Mennonite Collegiate Institute (MCI) campus. Designed to serve the wider southern Manitoba constituency, the $5.5 million centre, a project of MCI, is a state-of-the-art facility for music and drama events. It seats 450.
—MCI release
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), desperately seeking its way back to federal power in India, is reverting to its anti-minority political platform of Hindu nationalism. If implemented, Christians and Muslims could face a backlash of Hindu extremism. Leader L.K. Advani recently declared his party’s commitment to constructing a “Hindu India” and called the party “a chosen instrument of the divine.”
—Compass Direct
The MB Peace Centre in Shamshabad, India held a seminar on Anabaptist theology and peacemaking for Mennonite pastors and leaders of India in November. The event was co-sponsored by MCC. The centre was inaugurated in March 2004 under the directorship of S. Solomon.
—India Ministries Newsletter
| 
